Hard-hitting and Powerful Quotes About Peer Pressure

Peer pressure can be daunting to handle. A child, being in the process of forming an identity, needs support and direction by those around him. The only way of making your child strong enough to beat peer pressure is to help him build confidence in himself, his abilities and his decisions, and to treat your growing child with respect and as an important individual.

Mukta Gaikwad

Last Updated: Mar 19, 2018

Peer pressure can spur you on to do things that you may not have done by yourself - good or bad! When peers influence your life without you realizing it, it is termed as peer pressure. Every child is subjected to this phenomenon at some age or the other. Sadly, children succumb to it as a result of a dire need to fit in. It is an identity crisis and constant comparison by parents and teachers, that makes children follow the acts and ambitions of certain peers. Here are a few quotes about this issue that will sum up what it is.

Food for Thought about Peer Pressure

Hermits have no peer pressure. ~ Steven Wright

No child is immune to peer pressure. ~ Kathi Hudson

The people in the popular group say there is no peer pressure because they are at the top of the food chain. Really what they are doing is just eating away at everybody else. ~ Lauren Greenfield

Peer pressure has many redeeming qualities. It is the pressure of our peers, after all, that gives us the support to try things we otherwise wouldn't have. ~ Bill Treasurer

Talk to your children about peer pressure. Explain what a powerful force it can be, and ... tell them that you will never accept the excuse that "Everyone did it" ... that they will be held responsible for their actions. ~ Tom McMahon

Kids ... can get to the point where they feel peer pressure that isn't even there simply because of how they see themselves. ~ Walt Mueller

I will do anything to look like him - except, of course, exercise or eat right. ~ Steve Martin

Peer pressure is not a monolithic force that presses adolescents into the same mold. . . . Adolescents generally choose friend whose values, attitudes, tastes, and families are similar to their own. In short, good kids rarely go bad because of their friends. ~ Laurence Steinberg

The ugly reality is that peer pressure reaches its greatest intensity at just the age when kids tend to be most insensitive and cruel. ~ Walt Mueller

The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept. ~ John W. Gardner

Most literature on the culture of adolescence focuses on peer pressure as a negative force. Warnings about the "wrong crowd" read like tornado alerts in parent manuals. . . . It is a relative term that means different things in different places. In Fort Wayne, for example, the wrong crowd meant hanging out with liberal Democrats. In Connecticut, it meant kids who weren't planning to get a Ph. D. from Yale. ~ Mary Kay Blakely

The main consequence of saying no to negative peer pressure is not just withstanding "the heat of the moment," as most adults think. Rather, it is coping with a sense of exclusion as others engage in the behavior and leave the adolescent increasingly alone. It is the loss of the shared experience. Further, the sense of exclusion remains whenever the group later recounts what happened. This feeling of loneliness then becomes pervasive but carries an easy solution - go along with the crowd. ~ Michael Riera

Peer pressure is a part and parcel of growing up. It allows a child to explore and tap his/her dormant potential. It teaches the child to face challenges and overcome obstacles with an edified mind. It also teaches him/her to stand up for what he/she believes in, to say no when necessary, and thus, in the process form a strong character and personality. Although peer pressure more often than not ends up having negative effects, if we teach our children to learn to take it positively, and as an opportunity to add strength to their character, the journey will be easier. The right attitude can make peer pressure seem positive and not let it overwhelm you or affect your personal choices and decisions!